Elefantastic

I had the misfortune of visiting Atelier Jade's site in January on the very day she left for vacation. Of course, I fell in love with the elephant print cotton fabric. Of course, I bought it. Then I waited. I have to admit, the fabric showed up just about five days after she got back from vacation. That's pretty quick, if you ask me. So, now there is this cute stack of fabric to figure out what to do with.

To add to my 'problems' I placed an order from Superbuzzy There are a whole bunch of new items out there. If you haven't seen it already, take a look. I just had to have the Matryoshka Doll canvas, and got it in two different colors. If you want to order some, do it soon! I think there are only two yards left.

Learning Something New

Okay, I know that I'm not the first one to blog about this book (I actually first heard about it through Emily's blog) but after getting my own copy I decided it's so good I couldn't resist talking about it. See and Sew pretends to be for children, but I think it's actually for adults who remember being how to taught to sew by their mothers or grandmothers.

Besides the fun nostalgia factor, this book actually taught me how to do a French knot! I can't tell you how many times I've squinted over a finished embroidery piece trying to figure out exactly how to twist up the thread to make those little flowers, etc. Hurrah!

Quilt Monday

Kevin's mom, Laurie, came for a vist this past weekend and brought with her these quilt rounds that were completed decades ago by her relatives. It looks like a bunch of vintage feed sacks were used for these, and I'm so excited to have them! There are 12 in total, and at first I was thinking of sewing them onto a quilt in a simple four by three pattern. But now, I'm thinking an organic shape might be more interesting. I've been arranging and rearranging them on the floor for a few days now, and even the kids are starting to give me strange looks. I thought I'd be exempt from that until they were both at least eight years old. Alas... how wrong I was.

Bad Photo Woes

I've been having the worst time with photos lately. I acutally finished this handbag about 10 days ago, but couldn't get any good photos of it. I left the handbag and my camera out, and every couple of days I'd try taking a few more but they all ended up as dull and flat as these here. After looking at the forcast for the next five days, I decided to just go ahead and post what I have. I'm so envious of Sally's photos, she always seems to have the best light out there. It seems like a big cloud just decends over Ohio in December and doesn't let go of us until March.

At least I'm happy with how the handbag turned out. I'll do it a little differently next time, but overall I think this pattern will work out pretty good. There's a cell phone pocket on the outside, and a zipper pocket inside too. It's small enough to throw a few things in there and head out for a nice evening.

I Love You Moo

This is seriously cool. Moo cards from Flicker. I just got mine in the mail today. Here's the deal -- pick up to 100 photos from your Flickr library. Crop the images using their simple crop tool. Choose the information you want on the back of your card. Pay $20.00 with a credit card or paypal and your done! I got my cards in about 10 days (all the way from the UK!) and just LOVE them. My only small complaint is that they are a little dark. But they are using quality card stock and the print quality is pretty good overall. I already have an idea for my second set of cards. Check out the details here.

New Supplies

2007 is here and it is time to get started on some new projects. I've been buying up just oodles of supplies online and the first couple of things arrived this week. A couple of yards of Amy Butler fabric, and -- I just love this one -- a package of 100 zippers. Yep, 100 zippers. All different colors. I haven't used a lot of zippers in my handbags. Yet. But I have an idea for one that would use three. It will be good practice. I hope to start tomorrow!

Julie Morstad

I really should be working now. That's the chief danger of wireless access to the internet. Turn on the computer to do some work, and suddenly the whole wide world is there in digital form ready to distract you. Tonight my distraction came in the form of Julie Morstad's lovely narrative illustrations. I really should get to some work done. But I feel like sketching instead.

Patchwork Scarf

I'm a big fan of Sally's blog and often turn to it for inspiration. She made a scarf back in November for her son Baby J, and I *heart* that scarf! I kept trying to find time to make one for myself (sorry, lovely son of mine!) and finally sat down last night and knocked one out. I think it turned out pretty cute. And it matches my hedgehog bag.





It's nice to have that sewing cabinet opened up again. In fact, I've been spending way too much money ordering fabric and patterns online. I think some of it will show up here soon, and I can't wait to get started on a new batch of fun.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone! Tomorrow it's back to work after 10 lovely days off. Last night the Munces rang in the new year with our good fiends. The kids were real troopers and well behaved into the wee hours of the morning. I think we didn't get them into their beds until 2:00 am. They were very kind to me this morning and didn't wake up until 10:00 am.

Since it's officially 2007, the sewing cabinet has been opened again, and I've started work on a patchwork scarf for myself. I'll post photos as soon as it is completed.

Would you like some global warming with your Winter?

Like most moms, I kind of dread the winter. Kids trapped in the house all day. The half-hour or so it takes to get everyone bundled up to go run simple errands. But then, this year has been different. Actually, the past several years have been different.

On December 29th I woke up, made myself some coffee and started reading the paper. Temperatures of 60 degrees were predicted. I did the obvious thing in this circumstance. I took the kids to the zoo.

It's true that the animals are more active in the cooler temperatures. We saw a lot and had a great time. Well, the kids had a great time, anyhow. I was a bit uneasy. Really, should I be able to go out of the house at the end of December with the kids without a coat? I put the kids in sweat jackets, but they really didn't need them.

We bought a sled for the kids for Christmas. But I think we'll be lucky if we're able to use it this year.